Close-to-home transplant clinic helps Bolingbrook woman receive a new kidney after 14 years on dialysis

In 2010, Joe Ann Barfield got life-changing news: Her kidneys were failing.

After months of nausea, weight loss, darkening skin and foamy urine, doctors diagnosed her with end-stage kidney failure caused by undiagnosed high blood pressure.

“It was very, very shocking,” said Barfield, who was 55 at the time.

For the next 14 years, Barfield relied on dialysis, a treatment that filters waste and excess fluids from the blood when kidneys can’t. She attended thrice-weekly dialysis sessions and was told two times she wasn’t eligible for a kidney transplant — the only way to stop dialysis.

Barfield didn’t lose hope.

A University of Chicago Medicine transplant outreach coordinator, during a virtual education session in March 2024, told Barfield about a new option: a pre-transplant evaluation clinic recently launched at UChicago Medicine AdventHealth Bolingbrook hospital.

Barfield would soon become the first patient evaluated at the clinic to receive a kidney transplant.

Expanded transplant evaluation services in Chicagoland

The clinic is part of UChicago Medicine’s efforts to deliver personalized transplant care closer to patients’ homes. This helps reduce barriers like travel, cost and unfamiliar hospital settings.

“We want patients to feel less daunted by the idea of being evaluated for a transplant,” said Beatrice Concepcion, MD, MS, medical director of UChicago Medicine’s kidney transplant program. “By meeting patients where they live, we can provide better access and support.”

The Bolingbrook clinic, a short drive from Barfield’s home, is one of several locations in Chicagoland offering transplant evaluations by UChicago Medicine experts. The Bolingbrook clinic was established in 2023 as part of a joint venture between UChicago Medicine and AdventHealth to expand access to academic medicine in the western suburbs.

Barfield met with UChicago Medicine transplant surgeon Ashley Suah, MD, who listened carefully and answered all of her questions.

Despite what doctors elsewhere had said, Suah believed Barfield was an excellent candidate for kidney transplantation.

UChicago Medicine transplant surgeon Ashley Suah, MD, confirmed that Barfield was healthy enough to receive a new kidney. (Jordan Porter-Woodruff)

“We spent a lot of time getting to know her and understanding what her concerns were,” Suah said. “I think that instilled a lot of hope.”

Additional tests confirmed Barfield was healthy enough for transplant surgery. In August 2024, she was added to the national kidney transplant waitlist.

Successful kidney transplant brings new hope

The wait was brief. Just five days later, Barfield received a call during dialysis: A donor kidney was available. She rushed to the University of Chicago Medical Center in Hyde Park, which anchors the health system, for surgery.

“It was really a relief,” Barfield said.

UChicago Medicine transplant surgeon Piotr Witkowski, MD, PhD, performed the operation. He placed the donor kidney in Barfield’s lower abdomen, connecting its blood vessels to her arteries and veins, and attaching the ureter — the tube that carries urine — to her bladder.

“We knew Joe Ann was an excellent candidate despite being turned down by other transplant programs,” Witkowski said.

After surgery, transplant patients must take daily immunosuppressant medications to prevent rejection. Barfield also chose to participate in a clinical trial testing an experimental antibody drug called tegoprubart, which she receives every three weeks. The trial compares this drug to tacrolimus, a common anti-rejection medication.

“Joe Ann is approaching her second transplant anniversary with excellent kidney function,” said Michelle Josephson, MD, a UChicago Medicine transplant nephrologist and co-principal investigator of the trial.

“There are always bumps along the road with transplantation, such as medication side effects like post-transplant diabetes or less serious but still annoying ones like hand tremors. Joe Ann’s course has been remarkably easy and her side effects have been extremely limited.”

After her kidney transplant, Barfield is enjoying time with her friends and traveling. (Jordan Porter-Woodruff)

‘I just feel normal’

Today, the 71-year-old Barfield enjoys a new quality of life. She relishes the energy to go shopping or on vacation and can live in the moment.

“Just feeling independent again, going to places by myself, hanging out with my friends more,” Barfield said. “Before, my mind was always on having to go to dialysis.”

She no longer spends hours hooked up to dialysis machines or follows a restrictive diet. She’s at a healthy weight and has no side effects from her medications.

“I have every confidence in my doctors,” Barfield said. “I feel like I did before my kidneys went bad — I just feel normal.”